Allied Armoured Fighting Vehicles of the Second World War

By Michael Green

Expert author Michael Green has compiled a full inventory of the armored fighting vehicles developed and deployed by the Allied armies during the six year war against Nazi Germany and her Axis partners.Tank destroyers included the US Army's M18 Hellcat and M36 Jackson, the British Archer and Achilles and the Soviets SU-85, SU-100 and SU-122.Self-propelled artillery vehicles provide indirect fire support. Examples of these were the British Bishop and Sexton, the US M7 Army Priest and The Red Armys SU-152 Beast Slayer.For reconnaissance the Allies fielded armored cars and scout cars such as the Daimler Dingo, the US M8 Greyhound and T17 Staghound, and the Russian BA-10, –20 and -64.AFVs such as the British full tracked Universal Carrier and US M3 halftracks were fitted with a range of weapon systems, such as mortars or machine guns.All these and many more AFVs are expertly described in words and captioned images in this comprehensive work which is the companion volume to the authors Allied Tanks of the Second World War.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473872394

Michael Green

Michael Green (born 1930) was a British theologian, Anglican priest, Christian apologist and author of more than 50 books. He was Principal of St John's College, Nottingham (1969-75) and Rector of St Aldate's Church, Oxford and chaplain of the Oxford Pastorate (1975-86). He had additionally been an honorary canon of Coventry Cathedral from 1970 to 1978. He then moved to Canada where he was Professor of Evangelism at Regent College, Vancouver from 1987 to 1992. He returned to England to take up the position of advisor to the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York for the Springboard Decade of Evangelism. In 1993 he was appointed the Six Preacher of Canterbury Cathedral. Despite having officially retired in 1996, he became a Senior Research Fellow and Head of Evangelism and Apologetics at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford in 1997 and lived in the town of Abingdon near Oxford.

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Chapter One

Reconnaissance Vehicles

The armoured car had its baptism of fire in 1912 during the Italian-Turkish War (1911–12). This was four years before the first tank entered into combat during the First World War (1914–18). Beside their employment as raiding vehicles or rescuing downed pilots behind enemy lines, armoured cars also saw limited service as reconnaissance vehicles during the early part of the First World War. The latter would become their primary role during the Second World War.

In the British and Commonwealth armies, the armoured car was the ground reconnaissance platform of choice during the Second World War. The Red Army originally favoured light tanks for its reconnaissance role but eventually decided that the cheaper and quicker-to-build armoured cars made more sense. The US army would field an armoured car during the Second World War but seemed to prefer light tanks for scouting purposes. Some armies also employed armoured half-tracks in the reconnaissance role for a time.

Early British Armoured Cars

The first post-First World War armoured car adopted by the British army in 1927 was the 6×4 Crossley Mark I. It was built upon a specially-designed Crossley Motors truck chassis. Weighing in at approximately 11,000lb it had a four-man crew and was armed only with machine guns. The Crossley Mark I was employed only as a training vehicle by the British army during the early part of the Second World War.

The first purpose-built armoured car acquired by the British army in 1928 was named the ‘Lanchester’ after the firm that designed and built the vehicle. A 6×4 vehicle with a crew of four, it was armed only with machine guns. In its final version the vehicle weighed approximately 16,000lb. There were thirty-nine units built. Some were sent to the Far East in 1939, with a few seeing combat against the Japanese army in 1941.

Second-Life Armoured Cars

The Royal Navy Air Service had employed improvised machine-gun-armed 4×4 Rolls-Royce armoured cars in 1914 to rescue pilots forced down behind enemy lines during the First World War. However, once both sides had dug in and trench-fighting became more common, this was no longer possible. These approximately 9,000lb vehicles labelled as the ‘1914 Pattern’ were then transferred to the British army in 1915 who found limited use for them during the remainder of the conflict due to all sides building extensive trench systems.

Vehicle Wheel Definitions

For those unfamiliar with 4×4, 6×6, 8×8 or other numbers mentioned in the book with reference to wheeled vehicles, the first digit represents the number of wheels on the vehicle and the second the number of driven (powered) wheels. The number of tyres attached to a vehicle’s axles does not change the basic designation system.

Some new-built examples of the Rolls-Royce armoured cars appeared during the interwar period and are referred to as the ‘1920 Pattern’ or ‘1924 Pattern’. A number of 1914 Pattern armoured cars were rebuilt during the interwar period. Besides the British army, these Rolls-Royce armoured cars were also employed by the Armoured Car companies of the Royal Air Force (RAF), being tasked with airfield defence.

A number of the Rolls-Royce armoured cars would remain in service long enough to see combat in the Middle East during the early part of the Second World War. These were employed by both the British army and the Armoured Car companies of the RAF, which became the RAF Regiment in 1942. Others were retained in Great Britain and employed as training vehicles. They were officially labelled as a ‘Light Reconnaissance Car’.

In the early 1920s, the British army in India was supplied with approximately 100 machine-gun-armed armoured cars based on a Crossley 4×4 commercial truck chassis. Labelled as the ‘Crossley India Pattern’, they rode on solid rubber tyres. In 1939, many had their armoured bodywork removed and remounted on a 4×4 Chevrolet truck chassis that rode on pneumatic tyres. They were renamed as the ‘Crossley Chevrolet India Pattern’ and some saw service in the Middle East between 1940 and 1941.

The Beaverettes

With the fall of France in the summer of 1940 there loomed the threat of German paratroopers attacking British airfields and aircraft factories. In response, a senior British politician (Lord Beaverbrook) arranged for the construction of a stopgap armoured vehicle built upon the chassis of an existing 4×2 civilian car and armed with machine guns.

Its official British army designation was the Standard Car 4×2 or Car Armoured Light Standard. The RAF labelled it the Car, Armoured, Light Standard Type C Beaverette I. The approximately 5,000lb so-called Beaverettes were operated by a crew of two. In total, there were around 2,800 units built in different versions.

The initial version of the Beaverette was open-topped but subsequent models had an armoured roof and were fitted with a small one-man turret. Some were allocated to British army units as interim reconnaissance vehicles until more capable vehicles were acquired. None would leave the country to see combat.

The Humberettes

Another stopgap armoured vehicle pressed into service in the summer of 1940 was the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car Mark I. It was officially named ‘Ironside I’ after British General Sir Edmund Ironside who had authorized their construction. It also acquired the unofficial nickname ‘Humberette’.

The Humber Light Reconnaissance Car was originally based on the 4×2 chassis of the ‘Super Snipe’ passenger car. The three-man Mark I model weighed approximately 7,000lb and had an armoured roof. The Mark II version came with a one-man open-topped turret armed with a machine gun. It could also be armed with the Rifle, Anti-tank, .55 Boys, better known as the ‘Boys Anti-tank Rifle’.

Beginning with the approximately 8,000lb Mark III version, the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car became a 4×4 vehicle. It was the Mark III variant that became the main operational version for the British army. These would see service almost everywhere that the British military fought during the Second World War. By the time production concluded in 1943, a total of 3,599 units had been constructed.

General Motors of Canada built 1,761 units of a near-copy of the Humber Light Reconnaissance Car named the ‘Otter’. Its official designation was ‘Car, Light Reconnaissance, Canadian GM Mark I’. Most served with the Canadian army. However, some of the approximately 11,000lb vehicles would be taken into service by the British army.

The Morris Contribution

In 1938 the British army ordered somewhere between 100 and 120 production units of the Morris Armoured Reconnaissance Car Model CS9. It was based on a lengthened chassis of a Morris Motors Ltd 4×4 truck chassis and had a four-man crew with two positioned in an open-topped turret armed with a machine gun and a Boys Anti-tank Rifle. The approximately 10,000lb vehicle would see combat in both France and later in North Africa until withdrawn from service in 1941.

Morris Motors Ltd came up with the Mark I Light Reconnaissance Car in 1942. Like the others, it was based on the chassis of a 4×2 civilian car but differed in overall design as the engine was moved to the rear of the vehicle. It was operated by up to three men and armed with a machine gun and the .55 Boys Anti-tank Rifle. The total number taken into service was 1,914 units.

The Mark II version of the Morris Light Reconnaissance Car was a 4×4 vehicle. It was armed only with a machine gun as the Boys Anti-tank Rifle that had been fitted to the Mark I was then considered obsolete. A total of 2,274 units of this vehicle were built between the summer of 1940 and 1944. It would see service with the British army from North Africa to Western Europe and would also serve with the RAF Regiment.

The Dingo and Variants

The Daimler Scout Car unofficially nicknamed the ‘Dingo’ entered into British army service in 1940 with the requirements for the vehicle having been set down in 1938. It was a turretless two-man vehicle armed with a machine gun. The original model had a sliding roof dispensed with on later versions.

The Daimler Scout Car was a purpose-built design and therefore had excellent off-road capabilities. The total number constructed of the three versions of the vehicle was 6,626 units. Besides its use as a reconnaissance vehicle, the approximately 7,000lb scout car was also employed as a non-combat liaison vehicle.

As Daimler could not build as many scout cars as the British and Commonwealth armies required, other firms both inside and outside the country were tasked with designing and building similar vehicles. The Ford Motor Company of Canada built 3,255 units of a larger and heavier version of the Dingo named the ‘Lynx’. It weighed approximately 9,000lb and came in two models officially labelled as the ‘Car Scout Ford I and II’.

Whereas the Ford-built Lynx series looked very much like the Daimler-built scout car series and can be difficult to distinguish, a machine-gun-armed scout car designed and built by Humber Limited, a subsidiary of the Rootes Group, looked very different and is easily identified by its unique design.

Like the Daimler and Ford vehicles, the Humber Scout Car was a rear-engine vehicle with a crew of two at the front of the vehicle. It weighed around 5,000lb and between 1942 and 1945 a total of 4,102 units were built in two versions. Not as capable as the Daimler Scout Car, the Humber Scout Car series was generally reserved for the non-combat liaison role.

Daimler Armoured Car

The Daimler Scout Car and its machine-gun-armed counterparts were intended to acquire battlefield information by stealth. This led to the demand for a better-armed version that could better defend itself when the need arose. This resulted in the fielding of the Daimler Armoured Car Mark I in 1941 and later the Daimler Armoured Car Mark II, beginning in 1944.

The Daimler Armoured Car was an up-scaled Daimler Scout Car fitted with a two-man tank turret armed with the Ordnance, QF (Quick-Firing), 2-pounder (40mm) gun and a machine gun. The vehicle weighed approximately 17,000lb. A total of 2,318 units of the Daimler Armoured Car series were built, 1,900 of these being the Mark I model and 418 being the Mark II variant.

British Army Definitions

The British army eventually decided that any armoured wheeled vehicle that had a rotating turret fitted with a high-velocity anti-tank gun or large-calibre machine gun was considered an armoured car. The British army did not separate their armoured cars into different categories as did other armies by weight, armament or thickness of armour.

Those wheeled armoured fighting vehicles that were open-topped or fitted with turrets armed with small-calibre machine guns were considered light reconnaissance cars or scout cars.

Guy/Humber Armoured Cars

In 1939, Guy Motors was awarded a contract to build 101 units of a machine-gunarmed armoured car designated the Mark I. It was based on the chassis of a 4×4 artillery prime mover and weighed approximately 13,000lb. A few would see combat with the British army during the Battle for France.

As Guy Motors could not meet all the requirements of the British army, it was decided that Humber Limited would be assigned the job of designing and building a similar armoured car. Like Guy Motors, they decided to use the chassis of a 4×4 artillery prime mover upon which they mounted an armoured hull and turret very similar to that seen on the Guy Armoured Car Mark I. The Humber Armoured Car Mark I began coming off the production line in 1940.

The Humber Armoured Car Mark I weighed approximately 15,000lb. The last production model of the series was the Mark IV. It was armed with the Americanbuilt 37mm Gun M6 plus machine guns. Total production of all variants of the vehicle was 2,000 units. The Daimler Armoured Car Mark I was the intended replacement for the Humber Armoured Car series.

To supplement the Humber Armoured Car series